Sunday, January 22, 2012

Reviews: Jack The Ripper; Wolfskin Vol. 2- Hundredth Dream

JACK THE RIPPER (Transfuzion, 2010; Softcover)

Orignal Graphic Novel, 54 pages, black and white.

Writer: Gary Reed

Artist: Mark Bloodworth

Not quite a book and not quite a comic, The Illustrated Jack the Ripper is a happy marriage of both. It features numerous written passages discussing various facts and theories, and other pages done in comic book style. It also has reproductions of actual newspaper drawings and mortuary photographs from the era, which are a real treat and worth the price of admission alone. Like many people, I have long been a sucker for the whole Jack the Ripper thing. There is a real mystique, and the fact that it is virtually unsolvable means that we'll never tire of studying it.

Like all Avatar titles, this boasts high quality writing, artwork and computer coloring. The production values are really top notch on this title. This is a very thinly veiled metaphor for today's society, albeit done with copious amounts of medieval, Dungeons & Dragons style bloodshed. I sometimes have a hard time embracing tomorrow, much like some of the characters in this story. I do not, however, go on a bloodsoaked rampage across the countryside to try and prevent that change from happening. This is a really good read, and I highly recommend it to the aforementioned D&D crowd as well as fans of Avatar Press' other titles.

The OCD zone- This book has a nice heft to it, the result of the thick paper stock used. All of the variant covers are included, making this a nice package even if you did collect the regular series.